Bangert: Smaller serves Chief Justice Rush well

Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush takes the oath of office from Gov. Mike Pence during a ceremony in the law library at the Statehouse on Monday. Rush’s husband, Jim, holds the Bible and her son, Luke, holds the microphone.
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AP
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Ceremonies, bananas and pharmacies that aren't. A few notes to round out the weekend.

Making history affords a person the right for some ceremony, some pageantry.

It spoke volumes that Rush, only the second woman on the state Supreme Court, took a pass at a bigger ceremony when she was sworn in as the first female chief justice, opting for a more intimate setting in the court's library. And that she ended her formal remarks with this: "Let's get back to work." And that she then did, as if the ceremony was more of a calendar item than a historic moment.

Not that it would have surprised anyone who saw, up close, how she ran juvenile court on the fourth floor of the Tippecanoe County Courthouse for 14 years.

"When I was sworn in two years ago, there were all these hundreds of people who came and filled the chambers," Rush said. "That was wonderful, but I just had that a year ago in December."

This time would be different for Rush, who found out she got the chief justice position on Aug. 6 while cranking "Under Pressure" by David Bowie and Queen. ("That song came on the speaker I have down here, so I turned it up," Rush said. "All of a sudden I heard 'Hail to the Chief' from my off-chambers, and my staff came in and said I got it.")

"I thought it was important that the court reconvene right away," Rush said. "If you go and look on the docket, the first case set for us with me as chief justice is (the constitutionality of Indiana's) right-to-work (law). So there you go. I thought a small, quiet ceremony soon — that was important."

As for all of the pioneer talk?

"When media asks me questions, the first one always is about being the first woman," Rush said. "But going back to the ceremony, and why it was important to me, the institution is about so much more than the individual people. If you focus on that, if you focus on an individual, if you focus on, 'Oh, the gal got it,' it takes away from the fact that you have to trust your Supreme Court.

"I meant it. Let's get back to work."

Going bananas

Granite Management, a student living company, last week made its second banana-related foray into the world of is it art/is it branding/you make the call.

So, how would you rank these Greater Lafayette artful protests, all of which can lay claim to sticking it to the man — or at least sticking it to convention.

2. The Banana Sculpture, which went up, much to the city's chagrin, last week at Andrew Place and State Street.

3. The Pepto-Bismol House, the decidedly pink rental house on Salisbury Street, the color chosen after owners were told by code enforcement to get a new paint job in 2009.

4. The Redesigned Purdue Pete. God rest his rejected, puffy soul. Booed at Ross-Ade Stadium at his debut, he never had a chance.

Speaking of signs …

If a company's logo really can be art, what do you call a company's sign that hangs over something that simply isn't what you expected?

Some residents in West Lafayette's New Chauncey neighborhood were wondering as much as they ventured to the new 720 Northwestern project, a retail/housing development that replaced the low-slung and seriously outdated Stadium Square.

The CVS opened. But it's not exactly a pharmacy. You can't get a prescription filled there.

Mike DeAngelis, director of public relations for the national pharmacy chain, had this to say in an email: "This is nothing new or unusual. About 100 stores do not have pharmacies (out of our 7,600 total). Our other West Lafayette store is about two miles away and does have a pharmacy."

Two miles away is correct. For a project largely sold on the notion of being within walking distance from campus and the neighbors who had such a tough time swallowing the development, that's a bit of a hike.

Next time a big project comes to the city, think there won't be some questions about promises, brands and what those really mean?

More Art in the Park, please

Travel and various obligations kept us away from much of Lafayette's first summer of Art in the Park. But the eighth-grader at our house, the dog and I made enough of them to know the parks department is on to something. The every-other-Wednesday evenings of bands on Memorial Island, food trucks and local artists were just about right. The sound was good. The atmosphere was easy. Here's hoping enough people showed up in Park Director Claudine Laufman's estimation to put a second year of Art in the Park on the calendar.